Bittersweet Reunion
by BlueStar29
Summary: Toothless' past comes back once again to haunt him. But this time it comes in a form that the dragon has feared his entire life. When strange roars are heard in Berk, Toothless must face this part of his past and also make a painful choice.
1. Chapter 1

_Okay, so this is my first Dragon story. I'm pretty nervous jumping fantoms like this, since the last time I did it didn't go so well. But I have faith in this story-and more to come (whether you like it or not)!_

_Anyway, I don't really have a specific time spot to put this in, but a few elements put in here, as I reread it myself, suggest that it takes place some time in the cartoon series. So, let's give this a try. And even if you don't like it, who cares; it's here to stay._

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**Chapter 1: Strange Sounds**

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It was an unusually warm, cloudless night on the isle of Berk. Fifteen-year-old Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was sketching a drawing of his best friends and dragon, Toothless. The marvelous Night Fury slept peacefully on the bed that was provided for him. These were the moments that Hiccup found it easiest to sketch his friend, without the dragon moving or squirming around too much.

Just as the teenager looked down at his sketch to check and make sure that his proportions were correct, he heard a soft growl come from the black scaled creature before him. Hiccup looked up to see that Toothless' eyelids, nostrils, claws and tail tip were twitching, indicating that the Night Fury was dreaming. The redheaded teenager chuckled and shook his head. He could not stop himself from wondering what the dragon dreamt about.

Satisfied with his sketch, Hiccup decided that it was time for him to catch up to Toothless and get some sleep as well. He was about to climb into bed when a distant roar could be heard. It was so loud that it completely woke Toothless out of his deep sleep. Hiccup was too busy looking out the window to notice that Toothless had woken up until the black dragon stepped in front of him to look out the window as well, which startled the young Viking.

"Toothless? Are you okay?"

The dragon did not answer. He just continued to stare out of the window. Hiccup noticed that his dragon's expression began to damper as his staring continued. It was almost as if Toothless was in a trance and was afraid to break out of it. This worried the teenager.

"Toothless?"

Hiccup put his hand on Toothless' head, causing the dragon to flinch. This reaction was very strange for the normally brave beast.

Toothless was not a jumpy dragon at all. So the sudden change in his dragon's persona startled Hiccup to no end. He decided to try again.

"Are you okay, Bud?"

The black dragon took one last look out the window before giving Hiccup a soft lick on the cheek, his way of telling the boy not to worry. Toothless then went back to his bed and closed his eyes, trying to get back to sleep.

However Hiccup was not easily fooled; he could clearly see that Toothless was nowhere near as relaxed as he had been just moments prior. But he did pick up on his friend's message. Even though Toothless pretended that there was nothing on his mind, the human part of the duo could not help but worry. He had never seen Toothless act the way he had that night.

* * *

The next morning was just as strange. Toothless was eager to get going. So much so that Hiccup was actually forced to pack their breakfast and take it with them. However the dragon did not seem to want his portion.

It was typical for Hiccup and Toothless to arrive early to the academy in order to get things set up for the day, but they arrived even earlier than usual that particular day—due to Toothless' obvious anxiousness. As soon as they landed, and Hiccup was safely on the ground, Toothless began pacing as if he were waiting for something to happen. Hiccup could not take it anymore. The Night Fury's nervousness was rubbing off on the boy and it was beginning to annoy him.

"Toothless, c'mon and eat with me, Bud." Hiccup hoped that the invitation to eat would calm the dragon's nerves. The whole thing probably would not have been so bad if Hiccup had any clue as to why the dragon was so nervous in the first place.

Time passed and the redheaded teen noticed that Toothless as still pacing around the academy entrance. He let out an exasperated grunt.

"Bud, please let me know what's got you so on edge…"

Once again Hiccup's words were ignored. Sighing, he gave up trying to calm the black beast down. The others would be there soon and Hiccup still needed to get the academy set up for the day's lessons. So he decided to leave some fish out on a plate for his friend, just in case Toothless felt like coming to his senses to eat.

One by one the teenagers of Berk arrived at the academy. The first to arrive (much to Hiccup's dismay) was Snotlout. Of course the first thing out of his mouth was how superior he was to Hiccup, or some other kind of vain remark of some sort; Hiccup was not paying attention. However it was the other boy's dragon, a Monstrous Nightmare named Hookfang*, that really got Hiccup's attention.

It was well known throughout the gang that Hookfang and Toothless did not get along very well. Hookfang was a bit of a sore loser and hated that Toothless, though smaller in stature, was stronger and faster than him. It was a hard pill for the Monstrous Nightmare to swallow. However it was also known that the two respected each other on some levels; but every once in a while one would do something that would irk the other, causing a fight between the two. Hiccup swore that this was how the two dragons got their kicks.

Hookfang took it upon himself to rudely eat the fish that was left out on a plate earlier for Toothless. Hiccup saw this and instantly became annoyed. He was not in the mood for the two dragons to get into it today.

"Hookfang! That was for Toothless!" He turned to Snotlout, expecting the other teen to scald his dragon. The bigger boy just shrugged.

"Hey, finders keepers."

Hiccup groaned in annoyance. He was afraid that his black dragon was now going to challenge the larger orange dragon to a fight. He secretly thought that that was Hookfang's goal. He could see a smirk on Snotlout's face. He was looking forward to some kind of entertainment.

Both teenagers expected Toothless to attack at some point, as is the norm, but it never came. All three (Hookfang included) were startled by the lack of struggle. Three heads turned to find that Toothless was too lost in his own thoughts to pay Hookfang's efforts any mind. He seemed to be staring at the sky.

Snotlout rudely elbowed Hiccup's arm, which the smaller boy was forced to rub. "What's with your dragon?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know; he's been acting strange all morning." Worry was really starting to eat at him.

Midday came around and the teens were showing off their battle skills. Astrid's Deadly Nadder, Stormfly faced off against Fishlegs' Gronkle, Meatlug. Hiccup decided to sit this one out, just in case Toothless was coming down with something. He settled for sitting and drawing in his sketchbook.

"Stormfly, shoot!" Astrid yelled from atop the bright blue dragon as she ducked so as not to get impaled by her dragon's special attack.

At the sound of Astrid's voice Stormfly shot her tail into the air and fired eight spikes out of it. Fishlegs shrieked like a girl.

"Meatlug!" Fear was in his voice, fearing for his dragon's safety.

The botchy brown dragon dodged the spikes and tackled Stormfly to the ground. The bird-like dragon seemed to think that this was a bit unfair. She began growling and hissing, which was reciprocated by the other dragon. Astrid tried to step between them.

"Girls, take it easy!"

Meatlug accidently sat a few embers at the blonde, which Stormfly reacted to. She spread her wings and screeched as if she was about ready to pounce. Hiccup and Fishlegs tried to get the two to calm down. Normally it was Toothless that settled the fight between the dragons, but he was too preoccupied at the moment. Once the two female dragons were calmed, peace returned to the academy.

"Okay, I think we're good for the day." Hiccup said. "I'll—"

"Hiccup!" A different voice called.

All of the teenagers looked up to see Stoic the Vast and Gobber walking into the arena. Gobber was carrying a basket over the shoulder of his good arm. Stoic had an annoyed look across his face.

"Dad, Gobber … what are you guys doing here?" The redhead asked a little unnerved by the unannounced visit to the academy. It was usually never a good sign. Most commonly it meant that Hiccup was going to get blamed for something.

"Do you know anything about a dragon fight?"

Hiccup raised a brow.

"No, what dragon fight?"

Stoic was about to answer when Gobber beat him to it.

"A Nadder standing outside the storage shed was attacked trying to defend it. It looked like it nearly lost its life." There was a bit of a tremble in the man's voice.

This story made Astrid unconsciously grab at Stormfly out of protectiveness. She was sensitive to anything that had to do with Nadders.

Hiccup was still confused. And frankly a little offended that his father would think that he would allow such a thing to happen. "Why would I know anything about that?" His voice held obvious annoyance.

"Because there were Night Fury prints all over the scene." Stoic answered.

Hiccup gasped and quickly looked over at Toothless, who was still pacing around the entrance. There was absolutely no way Toothless would attack another dragon … unless he was attacked first. Still, Hiccup refused to believe that his dragon would attack with no reason.

"No, it couldn't be Toothless—he wouldn't cause havoc and he's always with me."

If the black dragon had not been so antsy at the time Hiccup would have gone over to him to make his point. He heard his father sigh.

"I do' want to believe it either, Son … but Toothless is the only Night Fury around. It's the only explanation."

"No it's can't—"

Hiccup was suddenly cut off by a loud but distant roar. Everyone else, including the dragons, heard it and became silent as well. It happened again. All eyes looked off into the direction in which it was coming from.

"What in Thor's name is that?" Gobber whispered as another roar sounded.

Toothless focused very hard on the sound. He had not been very sure when he had heard it the previous night, but now he was certain that those roars were familiar. That last particular roar filled him with excitement and fear. The dragon knew that he had to answer that call; it was for him. Toothless took one last look at the humans, who all seemed to be entranced by the sounds, before suddenly dashing toward the academy entrance.

The black blur that passed through his vision seemed to wake Hiccup out of his trance. "Toothless?" He was able to see said dragon pause for a second then sprint out of the academy. "Toothless wait!" This yell regained the other humans' attentions.

Hiccup was intent on following his dragon, who turned and growled at him. This aggressive action made the redheaded teenager flinch, but was not enough to stop him. "Bud, what's going on?"

The Night Fury had a look in his eye that was filled with so many emotions. The ones that Hiccup could clearly see were anxiety, excitement and, the most dominant, fear. Toothless roared at both Hookfang and Stormfly, seeming to tell them to do something. He then ran out of sight.

"Toothless!"

Hiccup made a move to run after his best friend, surly with the other humans following him. However Hookfang and Stormfly both blocked their way. The skinny teenage Viking did not appreciate this

"What are you guys doing? Get out of the way!"

The two dragons growled and stood their ground, not at all intimidated.

"Stormfly, move!" Astrid yelled.

"You too, Hookfang!" Snotlout added.

Neither dragon moved. It was at this time that the two dragons were joined by Meatlug and Barf and Belch, making a reptilian barrier between Toothless' path and the humans. Hiccup was getting irritated at this behavior.

"Would you guys knock it off?! I need to find Toothless!"

The dragons all refused to budge, which was starting to tick Hiccup off. The longer he was kept held up like this, the further away Toothless got without him.

There was a sudden "splish" noise from behind him. Hiccup looked to see that the basket that Gobber had been carrying was now dumped over with fish littered on the ground.

"Oh no, all this fish is now wasted, what every are we going to do?" He practically called out, enunciating every word to show that he was putting on an act (as If it was not clear enough).

Without another thought, the dragons all forgot their task that was apparently given to them by Toothless and rushed over to start eating the exposed fish.

"Thanks, Gobber." Hiccup said. He took this opportunity to dash after his dragon.

Toothless' paws pounded the ground as he ran. He knew that those other (idiot) dragons would not be enough to keep Hiccup distracted for very long. But he figured that if they could buy him enough time, he could get to the beach quickly and his trail would fade to the point where his pet human could not track him down.

Of course Berk was still an island, so it would only be a matter of time before Hiccup and the other (stupid) humans found him; so the Night Fury knew that he had to make this encounter quick. He refused to put Hiccup in danger … just in case **HE** happened to come to the island looking for him with the rest of them.


	2. Meet Toothless' Flight

_Wow, it's nice to see that this is a winner. Bet you didn't expect an update this early, did you? Luckily, I already had up through mid-chapter 3 written out. So the next update might not be as quick, but I'll be working on it-most likely while I'm in class; I tend to do my best writing when I'm in class ... weird, huh? Things just come to me. _

_Anyway, someone asked me if this follows the episode "What Flies Beneath." Answer is no. I began writing this right before that episode aired. I saw it and realized how similar it was, mostly because of Toothless' behavior, but I promise that this chapter leads this story onto its own path. _

_On that note, let me explain a something (a theory) about this chapter: The only Night Fury ever seen (so far) is Toothless; that does not mean to say that all of them are identical. So I did adjust the size of the breed, but it's only for this story. So I don't want to hear about "oh, that's not true", or "this doesn't make any sense at all because ..." or so on. It's **FANFICTION**. Which means we all write these stories for fun our own way._

_So, with that said, here's the kicker chapter!_

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**Chapter 2: Meet Toothless' Flight**

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Hiccup did not know where he was heading, but some part of him could sense where Toothless had gone. It was like a sixth sense that was being honed to track his dragon down. The teenager barely acknowledged the others following him, calling his name to wait for them.

He ran through the brush as fast as he could. The only thing on his mind at that time was getting to Toothless and making sure that he was alright. It was as if there was some kind of force that was leading him toward the dragon.

Toothless' trail lead him through a bunch of bushes—toppling over them—under low hanging tree branches and even through a few shallow ditches. Hiccup ran so fast that he did not notice the edge of the cliff in front of him until he almost fell off of it. Had it not been for Gobber grabbing a hold of his fur outerwear he would have fallen to his death.

"Thanks, Gobber."

He was going to start running again when he noticed a black mass on the beach below. By this time everyone else had caught up.

"There he is!" Fishlegs pointed out the obvious.

The humans all watched from high above on the cliff as Toothless paced back and forth on the beach in a circle.

"Tooth—MM!" Hiccup called before Gobber covered the redhead's mouth with his good hand and kept it there. When the boy looked at the man that had silenced him, Gobber shook his head as if telling him to be quiet and see what happens. That is exactly what he did.

For a long while, it seemed as if nothing was going to happen until the dragon roared and shot a spew of plasma into the sky. The strange part was that he did not seem to be aiming at anything.

"What's he doing? Snotlout asked.

Hiccup would have told him to shut up had Gobber's hand not still have been covering his mouth.

Once again nothing happened for a moment until that same series of roars from earlier was heard. Only this time they sounded much closer.

All of a sudden, Astrid gasped and pointed at the sky. "Look!"

The group of humans turned their attention to the sky to see a bunch of, what looked to be … bats. But as the little black flying spots became closer, they started to gain the appearance of … dragons—and not just any dragons.

Gasps could be heard as the humans realized what those little bat-like dots really were.

"Oh dear Odin! That's not possible!" Stoic exclaimed.

The dragons landed on the beach and surrounded Toothless. A series of grunts, growls and croons erupted from their black throats.

Seeing his friend surrounded by strange dragons sent Hiccup's alarms into overdrive. He tried to move towards them but Gobber _still_ held a hand over his mouth.

Yes, these dragons were definitely Night Furies. Toothless seemed to blend in with them. But upon further inspections, all of the other Night Furies were much more massive than him. Tuffnut was the first to point that out.

"Why is Toothless so puny and they're not?" He whispered. Astrid elbowed him to get him to shut up.

Finally shrugging Gobber off, Hiccup studied the scene before him. Tuffnut was right. The other Night Furies were all so much bigger than Toothless.

"Incredible!" Fishlegs quietly exclaimed. Hiccup looked at his large friend with a look of confusion. Seeing it, Fishlegs explained. "Don't you see? All those other Night Furies are bigger than Toothless…"

'_Really, I didn't notice…_' Hiccup sarcastically thought. "So…?" He voice allowed, urging Fishlegs to continue.

"So, that could only mean one thing: Toothless isn't finished growing yet."

Everyone looked at Fishlegs with realization. It made sense. Even though he was still considered a big dragon, Toothless was significantly smaller than some of the other dragons (Terrible Terrors aside) on Berk. He was always filled with so much energy. So much so that Hiccup sometimes had a hard time keeping up with him. And the dragon was constantly on a learning curve. Toothless' curiosity was just as strong as Hiccup's. Speaking of whom, the auburn teenager's emerald eyes suddenly widened even more.

"He's just a kid …" It was more of a voiced realization than a normal statement.

Hiccup had never really thought about Toothless' age before. He always assumed that they were all adults. On the other hand, if Toothless was too big to be considered a hatchling, yet not finished growing, than that would mean that his dragon had to be the equivalent of a teenager. It was all so interesting.

Suddenly all eyes turned toward the group of Night Furies. Hiccup became nervous again as a rather large Night Fury approached him. Instinct told the redhead to go down there and protect his best friend but Gobber held him back once more.

Toothless and this particularly large dragon circled and sniffed each other for several moments. The others all stood still as the circling continued.

"They're making me dizzy…" Ruffnut whispered, holding her head. Stoic shushed her.

A few more minutes passed, then the two dragons just stared at each other before the larger dragon approached Toothless again with a sound emitting from its throat.

Hiccup gasped, thinking that the dragon was going to attack Toothless. His nerves were flying around too much with so many large dragons surrounding his dragon.

However there was no need for his worry. Toothless and the other dragon began to nuzzle each other. Both purred contently.

The humans were all very confused, but Hiccup was the most surprised of them all. He knew from experience that Toothless was very hostile to newcomers and took a long time to warm up to strangers. He was a dragon set in his way. Then a thought occurred to him, "They know each other …"

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Uh, duh."

Hiccup chose to ignore him as he watched the other dragons greet the smaller dragon as well.

Fishlegs held his chin and made a "hmm" sound to himself. "This has to be Toothless' flight." Once again, all eyes turned to him in wonder. "You know, his clan." The stares of the other humans remained confused. The big boy slapped his hand to his head. "Ugh, his family!"

"Oooooohhhh." The others all said.

"But not only that … that dragon there," Fishlegs pointed to the dragon that was still nuzzling Toothless, "I think that's his mother."

Interest now peaked, Hiccup looked down at the flight of Night Furies. "How can you tell? She could be his … dare I say it … mate." The word felt foreign to Hiccup's vocabulary. He did not want to think about his dragon mating—especially since they just discovered Toothless' age.

Fishlegs shook his head. "No, look." He pointed again.

The (now identified) female dragon began licking Toothless on the head and under his chin. Toothless gladly let her do so, purring in response. "See? She's grooming him."

"You're right, only a mother would do that to her young." Hiccup said.

Astrid smiled and rested her chin in her hand while leaning on a rock. "Aw, how cute."

"It's amazing. All this time Toothless 'as been th' only Night Fury on Berk. I was beginnin' ta wonder if he was th' last one." Stoic voiced.

Hiccup nodded. He was starting to think the same thing. The humans all watched Toothless reacquaint himself with the rest of the flight.

Suddenly a bluish-white blast of fire disturbed the peace of the moment. The humans were startled and lost sight of Toothless and the flight. As soon as the light and smoke cleared, they could see that Toothless was knocked off a little bit. It was obvious that that attack was aimed at the small dragon. A loud roar was heard. Off into the sky, the shape of a **_VERY_** large Night Fury was fast approaching. The other dragons—including Toothless' mother—all moved to the side as the large black dragon finally landed on the beach.

The humans all gasped at one time when they saw the dragon. This particular dragon was even larger than the other Night Furies. It was almost the size of (if not a little bit bigger than) a Monstrous Nightmare. It had a scar over its right eye, forcing it to be permanently closed. The good eye that it did have was the same peridot green that Toothless had. It stood out so much in size that the humans just stared at it in awe. That is until Tuffnut broke the silence again.

"That … is one **BIG** Night Fury."

Aside from that, Hiccup noticed the fear in Toothless' body language. He could hear the loud growling of the massive dragon. He watched as the smallest black dragon lowered his head and backed up a bit. The large dragon continued to advance on Toothless with a look of anger and hatred on its face.

None of the other dragons moved a muscle or made a sound. The dragon seemed to emit a commanding aura around it.

Toothless backed away enough. His eyes held a bit of that famous "_Toothless Defiance_", as Hiccup dubbed it, in them as they usually had. The smaller dragon let out a small roar directed towards his larger counter part. It had the tiniest bit of a begging tone to it.

The large, one-eyed dragon roared a much louder commanding roar that instantly silenced Toothless and made him flinch.

Up above, Hiccup and the others watched the scene quietly. The teenager slowly shook his head in disbelief. He could not believe the way Toothless was acting. He had never known the Night Fury to cower from anything … not even bigger and more powerful foes. Something was wrong.

"Toothless, what are you doing? Why are you cowering? You never cower …" He mumbled, loud enough for the others to hear. Hiccup did not even realize that he had spoken that thought aloud. But he did not care. All that mattered was figuring out why Toothless was acting so intimidated.

The smallest Night Fury was trapped under the glare of the larger dragon. He whined a little as he lay down, resting his chin on the ground.

At that moment, the large Night Fury circled Toothless, grunting and growling with leers and glares as if it was scolding him. It seemed to be speaking in a draconic language—apparently degrading Toothless, if the shameful look on his face was anything to go by.

The young dragon whined again, looking at the ground.

"What's goin' on?" Gobber whispered.

Hiccup shrugged, but Fishlegs seemed to have an answer.

"I think that dragon is the Alpha of this flight."

Hiccup gasped in realization again. That was why Toothless was cowering. If this was the flight that Toothless grew up in, then it was only logical to believe that he had grown up fearing this large dragon because of its rank.

The Alpha Night Fury began to circle Toothless again. It stopped its grunting but continued to growl. As soon as it reached Toothless' tail it sniffed the prosthetic tailfin and reeled back suddenly, as if lightning had physically shocked it. Its good eye, the pupil narrowed into an even thinner vertical slit, followed the wiring that led to the riding saddle. A deeper, more threatening growl was heard. Toothless' eyes widened in complete terror.

Hiccup gasped loudly as a wave of blinding fear suddenly hit him. The scary thing was, he knew that this fear was not his; it was Toothless' fear! But why was he feeling it? He continued to watch, a little more on edge than before.

Toothless tried to creep away again when suddenly the Alpha harshly bit into his left wing, forcing a horribly pain filled screech from the small dragon. The bite was so deep that it pierced the armor-like skin, causing blood to seep through.

The redheaded teenager on the cliff above visibly jumped and almost yelled out if Gobber had not caught him by covering his mouth with his hand again. It was best to remain unnoticed at this point.

Even in agonizing pain, Toothless struggled as the Alpha held onto his wing in its teeth, which only did more damage. Then the Alpha suddenly twisted its head and there was a very loud, very audible crunch. Toothless shrieked in terror and pain. It was a horrible sound that would be etched into Hiccup's mind forever.

The humans' jaws hung. They could not believe what had just happened. The Alpha Night Fury had broken Toothless' wing, and from the sound of it, in multiple places. Tears were leaking out of Hiccup's emerald green eyes. It sounded as if his dragon was desperately screaming for mercy and/or forgiveness.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity to both Toothless and Hiccup, the Alpha released the wing, blood oozing more freely out of the puncture wound from the sharp teeth that were previously embedded into it. But as soon as the wing was released, the Alpha harshly bit down on Toothless' neck. the scales and skin were punctured there too, allowing more blood to leak out.

These cries of pain were too much for Hiccup. He tried once again to move but Gobber did not let him go. It was only after the Alpha placed a paw on top of Toothless' head that gave Hiccup the strength to push the brawly man away from him. Hiccup knew what the Alpha was trying to do. It was going to break Toothless' neck! That was it, he had to step in.

"**TOOTHLESS**!" Pushing Gobber out of the way, Hiccup made his way from the cliff to the beach. His actions startled the other humans.

"Hiccup!" They all called, following him down the side of the cliff.

The Alpha's attention was pulled from its task to the hoard of humans rushing their way down the cliff. It roared and gestured to the dragons behind it to take care of them. It never left its place atop Toothless' neck.

Hiccup managed to slide past the other Night Furies; the other humans were not so lucky. There were ten dragons that stood between them, Hiccup, Toothless, and the Alpha.

"STOP!" Hiccup threw himself onto Toothless' side, trying to use himself as a shield for his dragon, and not succeeding. Startled, the Alpha backed away from the small boy and dragon, but only a step. "Why are you trying to kill him?! He's one of you, isn't he?"

The Alpha Night Fury just growled in response. It then sniffed the air. That smell, that weird musky smell that hung in the air and seemed to stem from the weakling dragon in front of him, had become stronger. The Alpha sniffed Toothless and then sniffed Hiccup, who tensed at the closeness. An intensely loud shriek came from the Alpha when it could smell the small dragon's scent and the scent of the human all over each other. They _reeked_ of each other. It was infuriating! The Alpha reared up onto its hind legs. His wings expanded.

Hiccup gasped and hung onto Toothless even tighter. He knew this stance; it was the stance that Toothless took when he was threatened and was about to attack.

Stoic tried to get to his son in order to protect him, but the black beasts that stood blocking him would not let him through. He was desperate to save his son.

"HICCUP!"

Panic filled the air. The humans watched helplessly. They all knew was that the Alpha was going to attack Hiccup, most likely kill him, but the boy was too stubborn to move away from his best friend and Toothless was too weak to move.

But surprisingly, as the Alpha struck, Toothless shoved Hiccup out of the way and took all of the attack instead. The strong wings and tail of the huge Night Fury pounded the small dragon.

"Toothless!" The redheaded teenager ran back to Toothless, who was now unconscious from the pain. Hiccup looked from the Alpha to the dragon that had been identified as Toothless' mother.

She looked lost, caught between letting her leader do what it wanted to do and defending her son. Hiccup glared at her. Given those options the decision should have been easy.

He stared the Alpha down as best he could without trembling. He was not going to give this dragon the satisfaction of defeat. The boy had to stand up to this bully … for Toothless' sake. He would not let his best friend's sacrifice go sour.

Little did hiccup know that in the animal kingdom, a stare down was an invitation to a challenge.

After what seemed like hours of glaring and growling, the Alpha faltered. It turned to its comrades, giving a few commanding grunts. The other Night Furies backed down. One by one they began to fly away. Toothless' mother gave one last sorrowful look at the fallen dragon before joining the others. The Alpha also took a last look at Hiccup and the unconscious dragon before it spat a spark of plasma at them, aiming for the sand right in front of Hiccup; basically its way of saying, "screw you." Hiccup flinched but never left his best friend's side. The Alpha then spread its enormous wings and took flight. A feeling of Anger and hatred for the Alpha Night Fury was left in the boy's stomach. He could not fathom why the Alpha had tried to kill Toothless while the other Night Furies seemed so happy to see him.

"Toothless …" Looking to his unconscious friend, Hiccup cradled Toothless' head in his arms, seeming to think that this action would wake the dragon up. He then checked to make sure he was still breathing. It was labored, but it was there. Good, he was still alive.

The other humans all gathered around the duo. As per a parent's instinct, Stoic naturally was concerned for his son.

"Son, are you alright?"

The boy nodded, but seemed dazed as he continued to pet and cradle Toothless' head.

"I'm fine," He whispered "... but Toothless …"

Gobber knelt down to examine the dragon. He tried to get a good assessment of the damage but was unable to do so.

"We better get 'im back ta th' village for exam'nation b'fore it's too late." Everyone else agreed. Astrid tried to pry Hiccup away from Toothless but the boy threw her hand off of his shoulder.

"No, I'm not leaving him!"

"If you don't let us move him, he could die from his injuries. Is that what you want, Hiccup?" She asked with her hands on her hips.

Hiccup caressed the dragon one more time before following Astrid to lead him away. Stoic, Gobber, Snotlout, Fishlegs and Tuffnut all helped carry the Night Fury back to the village.

A tear ran down Hiccup's cheek. Toothless' fights never got so bad to where his injuries were fatal before. This time, he really was scared that he would lose his best friend.

* * *

_End of Chapter_


	3. Secrets Revealed

_Sorry this took so long. Funny story: I actually planned on having this up last week, but my rough draft completely disappeared! I have no idea where it went, so I had to rewrite the whole chapter. I was going to make it longer, but I decided not to. Ergo, the next chapter might be short ... I haven't decided yet._

_Oh, One note: I did reference **What Flies Beneath** on this one, so I guess I kinda have a time spot ... but not really. So anyway, here's the next part._

* * *

Hiccup paced around the lower level of the house as he and the others waited for Toothless' diagnosis. They had brought in the village shaman, Gothi to assess the damage done to the dragon. His nerves were getting the best of him, and without Toothless there to slap him upside the head with either his ear or tail, the auburn-haired teenager was unable to snap himself out of it. It was amazing how much of Hiccup's everyday life had changed to depend on the dragon once he made his way into it.

Hiccup's head was spinning with so many scenarios. He had never been so helpless when it came to Toothless. They were supposed to be a team. The teenager could feel tears forming in his eyes but he held them back. It would do no one any good to see him in such a vulnerable state at that time.

"Hiccup, can you please stop pacing? You're going to make yourself sick." Astrid said. Either the scrawny Viking boy did not hear her or he chose to simply ignore her.

Stoic stirred some stew in a pot over the fire and poured it into eight bowls taken from the Great Hall. He gave them to Gobber to pass around.

"Astrid's right, Son. Have something to eat."

Hiccup shook his head while everyone else received a bowl and began eating.

"I can't … what's taking so long? Should it be taking this long?" The boy found himself subconsciously reaching out for his dragon, desperate for the comfort of him. But when his hand touched nothing but air he was ripped back into reality

"The whole thing was weird …" Fishlegs seemed to be voicing his thoughts without even realizing he was doing so.

"Of course it was weird," Snotlout replied with his mouth full of stew, "a bunch of Night Furies came out of nowhere and kicked Toothless' butt."

Fishlegs shook his head. "Not so, only the Alpha did. The rest of them were all so happy to see him. But why not the Alpha?"

Before Hiccup could join that conversation, Stoic spoke.

"That flight must have been the one that raided the food storage and attacked that Nadder."

Gobber nodded in reply while slurping the stew. "But why do all that when they were here for Toothless?"

"I think the bigger question is … why were they here for Toothless after all this time? And why did his own flight turn their backs on him?" Hiccup added.

Just then, Gothi made her way down the staircase, staff in hand. She had a long look on her face, but that was pretty usual for her. Still, it did not stop Hiccup from worrying.

"Gothi! How is he? I-is he alright? He's gonna live, right?" He rapidly asked. Astrid placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. That action was not the same as getting slapped on the head by a big, heavy, black tail to calm him down.

The little old woman began running her staff in a pile of dirt, drawing little pictures in it. Gobber stood over her shoulder and looked at them.

"Uh-huh … uh-huh."

Hiccup could barely take it anymore. He needed to know if Toothless needed him that very second or not. "What?! What is it?!" Irritation and anxiety could not be more evident in his voice.

"She says that obviously his left wing is broken." Hiccup rolled his eyes. He had already known that part. "He also lost a lot o' blood. She thinks he might have a concussion too." The boy sighed, remembering how badly Toothless must have gotten hit if it was bad enough to give him a concussion. "And …" There was a pause that made Hiccup look up. Gobber looked to Gothi with shock in his eyes. "Are you serious?"

Gothi sadly nodded.

"What?! What is it?!"

"I'm sorry, Hiccup … but his fire's been burnt out."

Gasps were heard from across the room.

"But how is that possible? The Night Fury is supposedly the only breed of dragon without a shot limit." Fishlegs pointed out.

Gothi began scribbling in the dirt again.

"She says that the bite wound on his neck was so deep that it punctured his fire sack."

Hiccup sighed and looked to his room. Poor Toothless …

* * *

It was not until two nights later that Toothless finally woke up. During that time, Hiccup did not know what to do with himself. He refused to leave the dragon's side for anything. But there was really nothing to do.

Drawing did not feel the same without Toothless being his nosy self and looking over his shoulder at the sketch. Since his dragon was in a coma, there was no point in going to dragon training. So all he did was pet the black beast and wait for him to wake up. He really wanted to be there when Toothless woke so the dragon was not too confused.

When Toothless finally did wake up, Hiccup wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around the dragon's massive neck and tell him that everything was going to be alright. But the dazed look in those peridot eyes made him choose the more gentle approach.

"Hey, Bud … how ya feeling?" He whispered very gently.

Toothless' half-lidded eyes starred at his rider for a while. He looked around, seeming to be lost.

Hiccup got up from his desk and went to sit down next to his reptilian friend. He hoped that just his presence would be enough to keep the dragon calm.

Feeling the immense pain, Toothless caught sight of his left wing, which was wrapped in some kind of brace. Slowly, he looked to Hiccup with a look that seemed to ask what it was for. The boy sighed.

"Yeah, your wing's broken. You won't be able to fly for a while."

The dragon seemed unnaturally calm at first, before memories began to return to him. His pupils narrowed to slits as he jumped to his feet, searching in terror. "Toothless, calm down!" The dragon rapidly looked around, scared that he was going to be attacked again. "It's okay, Bud. You're home … you're safe now." Hiccup wrapped his arms around Toothless' thick neck. This motion calmed the Night Fury down a bit. Now that Toothless was over his shock, Hiccup could tell that he felt the pain. He eased the black beast back onto his bed. Best not to tell him that his fire was out just yet. He did not want to traumatize him anymore than he already was.

Toothless whined in a way that made him sound hopeless. Hiccup could practically feel the Night Fury's depression radiating off of him. That was what worried the teenager the most.

No matter how bad a defeat seemed to be, Toothless always had a sense of pride to him that made him want to seek out an opponent and claim victory, no matter how long it took. Where was that spirit now? What was so different about this situation that had Toothless hiding away in shame and pity? Was it because it was against another Night Fury? More specifically, a Night Fury he had grown up fearing? This was a whole new side of Toothless; a side that Hiccup could not stand to see.

* * *

Hiccup did not attend training for the next three days. Toothless needed to heal, and it was a bumpy road to travel on. He never got up from his bed and always refused to eat. Hiccup tried very hard and that was what he was doing when the other teenagers paid him a visit one afternoon.

The boy held a fish to the dragon's lips. "C'mon Bud, please eat ..." Toothless eyed his rider and then the fish with sad eyes before turning his head away in refusal. "But it's Icelandic Cod—your favorite." Toothless just groaned and turned away again. Hiccup sighed again and gave up.

He just noticed his friends entering his room. "Oh, hi guys. What're you doing here?"

Astrid made her way over to the duo and sat next to Hiccup, petting Toothless on the head. "We haven't seen or heard from you in a few days and wanted to see how things were going." Toothless did not respond to their presence at all. The small room was almost not enough to hold six teenagers and a dragon.

"Some of us were threatened with castration if we didn't come." Snotlout replied, glaring at Astrid. He and Tuffnut both tightened their legs together.

Fishlegs pulled the chair out from Hiccup's desk and sat down. "How's he doing?" He asked.

Hiccup sighed again and pet his dragon's head. His concern grew when he did not even get a purr as a response. "I think his pride hurts worse than his wing does. He won't even eat."

"Wow, this is serious!" Ruffnut said.

Hiccup shook his head. He felt so helpless not being able to comfort his best friend the way he felt he should. Without even thinking, he voiced his next question aloud.

"What do you guys think made that Alpha attack Toothless?" He felt the dragon tense at the mention of his attacker.

"I have a theory …" All eyes turned to Fishlegs again, who held a look of horror on his face. "Did you see the way it reacted to Toothless' tail? It was like it was repulsed by it."

Hiccup ran through the scene in his memory, trying to recall the exact moment when the Alpha Night Fury went crazy. Once again, Fishlegs was right. It was almost as if the Alpha had been … _insulted_ by Toothless losing his tail, and followed it to the saddle. Hiccup's emerald eyes widened as a thought occurred to him.

"What if—and this is just a theory as well—but what if the Alpha thought that because Toothless is injured that he wasn't useful anymore …?"

"Sounds like the way we doing things." Tuffnut replied.

"True, but I'm thinking more of the animal kingdom. Think about a wolf pack: when a member of the pack is injured, they either disown it or kill it. That's probably why the Alpha tried to kill Toothless."

Astrid nodded in understanding and shrugged her shoulders. "Sounds logical, but why come looking for him after such a long time, then kill him?"

"Good question …" Hiccup replied. He did not have an answer for that one.

* * *

A couple days later, Hiccup was able to get Toothless to at least go on a walk with him. He had expected the dragon to dislike being grounded with a broken wing, but he did not expect him to be so depressed. The Night Fury did not want to do anything. He just wanted to be left alone. Finally, after a few days of giving his friend what he wanted, Hiccup decided that this behavior was unhealthy. So he relentlessly urged Toothless to go on a walk with him, until the dragon became fed up and finally gave into the redhead's begging.

The walk was silent. Toothless' gaze was glued to the ground. He did not seem to care where Hiccup was taking him (as long as the teenager stopped his begging). The boy stole a glance at the Night Fury every once in a while. He did try to speak at one point, but Toothless gave him a look that clearly said that he did not care nor want to hear about it.

Hiccup came to a stop, which caught Toothless' attention when he almost ran into his rider.

"Okay, Bud. You ready for some training?" Hiccup said, trying to be as enthusiastic as possible.

Toothless gave him a look that said, "_are you kidding me?!_" Then gestured to his wrapped up wing.

Hiccup winced. "Uh … yeah, we'll try to work around that."

Both of them flinched as they heard an explosion and Ruffnut yell "**FIRE**!" Hiccup ran his hand down his face, mentally trying to prepare himself for whatever kind of destruction the twins had caused.

"Oh no …" Well, the vacation was nice while it lasted. He ran into the academy with Toothless lagging behind.

Smoke filled his vision for a second. Once it cleared, Hiccup could see a shield with a picture of a Night Fury painted on it. On instinct, Hiccup almost yelled and screamed for them to stop, but looking at it a little closer he could see that the painting of the Night Fury had a scar over the left eye, indicating that this painting was supposed to represent the Alpha Night Fury.

Normally, Hiccup would have yelled at his friends to stop and then lecture them about how they were misunderstanding the dragon, but this particular dragon had hurt Toothless. As far as Hiccup was concerned, it deserved everything the twins gave it.

"Fire again!" Tuffnut yelled with his fist in the air.

Their Zippleback gassed and sparked at the shield, causing it to splinter into little pieces. But the face was still intact.

Hiccup walked into the arena. "What are you guys doing?"

"We're practicing." Tuffnut replied, setting the small piece of shield with the Alpha's face back up.

"For what?"

Ruffnut snapped her fingers to get his attention. "So that we can help Toothless the next time that Alpha shows up."

Hiccup smiled. It was nice to know that his friends were there for him and Toothless.

"Stormfly, shoot!"

The blue Deadly Nadder shot her tail into the air and spikes flew from them and directly hit the shield. One spine hit the scarred eye.

Astrid smiled. "Yeah, if the encounter with the Whispering Death taught us anything, it's that Toothless likes to fight his own battles. But we want to be able to help him if he needs it."

Hiccup's smile grew. Then Snotlout began laughing loudly from atop Hookfang.

"Besides, we can't let you have all the fun. FIRE!"

Hookfang shot a blast at the shield. The thing could not stand any more abuse and finally obliterated. Only the piece that had the scarred eye remained.

"Thanks, guys. It's appreciated. We'll definitely be ready for another fight with that Alpha." Hiccup said with determination in his voice.

Suddenly, Fishlegs tapped him on the shoulder. "Um, I don't think we're as ready as we think …" He pointed and Hiccup looked in that direction.

Toothless was curled up in the corner, wrapped in his wings. Hiccup could see him trembling quite violently. It seemed as if the dragon was trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Toothless, what's wrong?"

The dragon could not look away from the small piece of shield that represented the Alpha's scarred eye. This was very strange: Toothless was _terrified_! That was not a word often used for the young Night Fury.

Hiccup walked up to him and tried to pet him on the head, but the dragon shrieked and hid himself in his wings. He was trapped in the memory of that horrible night.

Hiccup frowned. He did not even notice Astrid walk up to stand next to him.

"Wow, that encounter with the Alpha must have really shaken him up." She said.

Hiccup tried to pet Toothless' wing, even though the dragon did not respond the way he wanted him to. _'But why?'_ He thought.

"Well yeah, wouldn't you be a little on edge if someone tried to kill you?" Ruffnut asked.

Her brother scoffed. "People are always trying to kill us. That's kinda why I love living here."

That may have been a part of it, but Hiccup knew that was not the whole story. He could see all kinds of emotions in Toothless' eyes: fear, anxiousness, hopelessness, and … shame? Why would Toothless be ashamed? The boy studied his dragon for a sec, tilting his head in thought.

"I know that look …" He whispered. The others did not even hear him.

"I say we go find those Night Furies and run 'em off the island!" Snotlout loudly suggested.

"You must have some kind of death wish to go after a whole flight." Fishlegs replied.

Hiccup was not even paying attention to the conversation. He was still looking at his distressed dragon, trying to figure out why these emotions—the look on his face—was so familiar.

"Of course we've got a death wish. Hello! Have you met us?" Tuffnut said.

Hiccup continued to ponder the behavior of his dragon. _'Let's start from the beginning.'_ He thought. As the wheels in his head worked their magic, the other teenagers continued to argue with each other.

First there was the strange roar he had heard from his house that one night. That night Toothless flinched when Hiccup tried to touch him. Then there was the Night Fury's uneasiness the next morning. Followed quickly by the encounter with the flight—which obviously Toothless wanted Hiccup nowhere near. Finally there was the confrontation of Toothless and the Alpha Night Fury. The young dragon was on edge and clearly scared from the first second the two dragons laid eyes on each other. Not to mention that the Alpha had a strong dislike for Toothless from the beginning. That was evident. Toothless' shame grew the longer he was around that wretched dragon. He remembered the Alpha speaking to—no, _**at**_—Toothless, while it was circling him. The look on Toothless' face told him that it was scolding him, degrading him with shameful words. If Hiccup did not know any better, the Alpha's behavior kind of reminded him of … Oh no.

Emerald eyes grew large again as he looked at the dragon, who now rested his head on the teen's lap.

The other teenage voices around him kept arguing as he began to put the pieces of this difficult puzzle together.

"So basically, you wanna go on a suicide mission?" Astrid yelled. She and Fishlegs were one side of the argument while Snotlout and the twins were on the other.

"You really don't know us if you have to ask." Ruffnut said, folding her arms.

Snotlout opened his mouth to ad something when a quiet "Oh no …" was heard from Hiccup. All at once the teenagers shut up and looked at him. Hiccup's eyes looked at Toothless in shock.

"Hiccup? What's wrong?" Astrid asked. She took a few steps closer to him, but was a little afraid to get too close.

The auburn-haired boy just lifted Toothless' head and stared into those depressed eyes with a look of sympathy.

"Oh Bud … you and I are more alike than I originally thought …" He hugged the dragon as a tear fell from his eye.

The other teenagers looked at each other in confusion. By now they were used to Hiccup's odd behavior, but this was something else. Ruffnut nudged Astrid, silently telling her to bring him back to the real world. Astrid responded by silently sending her a, _"why do I have to do it?"_ look with her body language. The taller blonde girl gave her a look of, _"because you always do it."_ Astrid sighed and walked toward the small boy and his black dragon.

When she sat down next to them, Hiccup and Toothless just continued to look in each other's eyes without moving. She could have sworn that they were having a telepathic conversation. It sort of crept her out. It was time to bring them out of it.

"Uh … Hiccup … got something to share?"

Hiccup's sad expression grew as he caressed Toothless under the chin.

"I think I know why that Alpha attacked Toothless …"

The other teenagers listened intently, expecting Hiccup to continue. When he did not, they urged Astrid to snap the redhead out of it again. She glared, but complied.

"Okay … care to share with the rest of us?

Hiccup hugged the dragon's head again. He seemed to be drifting between the little world he shared with Toothless and the real world.

Snotlout groaned in frustration. "Would you just say it already?!"

Hiccup seemed so entranced that he did not even take the opportunity to insult Snotlout's (lack of) intelligence the way he normally would.

"That flight really was your family, wasn't it?" He asked, still caressing the dragon's head. Toothless groaned and slightly nodded. Hiccup's hear beat faster, anxious about the next revelation. He was secretly hoping he was wrong. "More importantly, that Alpha … that was your father, wasn't it?"

The other teenagers gasped and looked at one another. When Toothless just groaned and rested his head back onto his rider's lap, Hiccup knew he was right. The Night Fury would usually smack him on the head if the boy was wrong about something.

"How can you tell, Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked.

Hiccup looked at him with a strong look. He blinked and an emotion seemed to be lost. "Well for one thing, the one good eye that the Alpha had: did you see it? It was the same green color that Toothless has."

The husky boy shrugged. "So, any one of those dragons could have green eyes."

Hiccup turned back to Toothless and shook his head. "No, the rest of them all had yellow eyes—even his mother." At the mention of Toothless' mother, Hiccup found that he could not be angry at her any longer. Now he could see why she did not come to Toothless' rescue when the Alpha (her mate) tried to kill him. Hiccup swallowed the lump in his throat. "Also …" That lost emotion returned to his emerald gaze once again. "This look, this look of shame and hopelessness is only reserved for … father and son. Only a strained relationship like that can make you feel this bad. And I should know … I used to have that look all the time …"

Tension filled the air. No one knew what to say at a dramatic time like that. Hiccup looked at Toothless again. He swore that if a dragon could cry, Toothless would be doing so at that moment.

* * *

_Seriously, who didn't see that coming? I think you all did. So that's chapter 3. Like I said, the next chapter will probably be short, but it will quickly be followed by a longer one._

_Also, I'm having a dispute with myself: should I make a chapter from Toothless' PoV? When I say that, I mean one where you can understand him. The reason I'm debating it is because I don't really know if I want to do it, but it might make the story make more sense if I do. So yeah. After I post the next chapter, you'll see why I ask._

_Time to sign off_


	4. The Choice

_I told you it was short. But it's important. Now you know why I asked my question._

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Choice**

* * *

The walk home was a tense and silent one. Hiccup had to keep stopping to wait for Toothless, who was lagging behind. As soon as the auburn-haired boy reached the door to his house he noticed that Toothless had not even climbed the path. He turned to find the dragon staring up at the twilight sky. He sighed and went to stand next to him.

"Toothless, I know you're hurting right now—inside and out—but drowning yourself in pity isn't going to help anything." The dragon groaned in response. Hiccup scratched him on the head. "C'mon, let's go inside."

Toothless groaned again but this time he laid down on the cold, frosty grass. He lowered his head to the ground, signaling that he was not going anywhere.

Hiccup raised a brow. He knew that the dragon sometimes did these kinds of things just to be difficult. At that moment it was hard to tell if he was doing so or just wanted to be alone. "Bud, I promise: after your wing heals, we'll track down your flight and then you can have another shot at your father."

Hiccup expected his best friend to groan again, but instead he heard a faint growl. He could tell that Toothless was losing his patience, and when that happened it was best to get the dragon home, then leave him alone for the rest of the night. "C'mon Bud, I'm tired. Let's go—" Hiccup tried to tug on Toothless' good wing but the dragon roared and yanked it away. Now Hiccup was losing is patience. This attitude was getting a little old. "Fine! You wanna stay out here? Then stay out here! See if I care!" He stomped back up the path, yanked the door open and slammed it shut behind him. Toothless did not even flinch.

The dragon pondered what he should do. He could not simply wait until his wing was healed in order to face his sire. The old Night Fury would not wait that long to end his life.

Toothless brought his tail to his eyesight and grunted in frustration. Even if he was not injured, there was no way he could face his sire without the ability to fly. Stupid tail. It was because of the prosthetic and saddle that his sire wanted to kill him.

After the old dragon had made it abundantly clear that he was a failure and did not deserve to live, he noticed the missing fin and the saddle. His sire started screaming at him, calling him an abomination.

In conclusion, this was all Hiccup's fault. Toothless was sure that his sire could smell the boy's scent all over the saddle. Then when the (stupid) human jumped down in a feeble attempt to protect him, that just made his sire even more irate.

The entire reason why he had run away from that flight was to get away from his sire. It hurt him to leave his mother and friends but in order to save his own life, he had to leave. Since dragons mated for life, he knew that his sire would not hurt his mother; but that did not stop him from worrying about her.

However, the idea that the flight had come looking for him after two hundred years intrigued him. Plus, it felt good to see his mother after so long. If given the chance, he could prove to his sire that he could still be the dragon that he was taught to be. It would save his life. Yes, that was what Toothless would do.

But wait … Hiccup!

Toothless looked at the house at the top of the hill. The boy was his best friend, his rider, his … tail. He had given him a place to live and had taken away his loneliness. He cared enough to put himself in danger (as idiotic as it was) to defend Toothless time and time again.

But … the thought of his tail brought Toothless back to the reason why he was in this condition in the first place. It was _Hiccup_ that shot him down. It was _Hiccup_ that caused trouble—albeit by accident most of the time. And it was _**Hiccup**_ that caused his sire's anger to become homicidal.

Toothless growled. He was caught in a crossfire. Should he be loyal to Hiccup or to his sire? If he stayed with Hiccup than he was no more than a grounded dragon. If he went back to the flight he could save his own life and he could prove that he was still a fierce dragon, just as his sire taught him to be.

With one last, sad look at the house, Toothless made up his mind. He had to do this.

I'm sorry, my friend …

The dragon ran as fast as his injury would let him. He followed the scent that would lead him to his flight … and his sire.


	5. Confrontation

_This chapter might be a little jumbled, since my ideas were all jumbled. If you have questions, ask me and I'll try to clarify. Note: the names that I have given to the dragons are real Norse/Scandinavian names. I had to look them up. But their pronunciations are at the end of the chapter. I rather like Toothless' name. I think it's unique, but as an American, they all are to me. Also, I was going to make it longer and have a scene with a confrontation scene with Hiccup and Toothless at the end, but then I decided to put that in the next one. It'll be better placed. Also, narration-wise, even after Toothless' name is revealed, I still refer to him as "Toothless". Only the Dragons call him by his real name. So, here you go!_

* * *

**Chapter 5: Confrontation**

* * *

It did not take Toothless very long to track down his former flight. Interesting fact: Night Furies have a very defining … stink to them. Was this what the other dragons smelled when he was around? Toothless would have to do something about that when this was all over.

Ouch! That was another thing he needed to do: stop referring to himself as "Toothless." That was a special name given to him by Hiccup. In order for this to work, he would have to reacquaint himself with his birth name. Toothless cringed as he thought of that name. He hated it with a passion! It reminded him of the terrible life he had left behind. The life he had run away from over one hundred fifty years ago. Sighing, he listened to the conversation that was going on.

"Why are we still here?" A male voice asked.

Toothless knew that voice. He had grown up with that voice. That voice use to be his best friend. He was then betrayed by that voice. "We already found Canute (**1**). We need to kill him then leave! There are too many humans here."

Toothless flinched at the mention of his birth name. He had not heard it in over one hundred fifty years—and never really wanted to ever hear it again.

"I agree with Beta Ymir (**2**)! We have wasted too much time as it is!" Another voice, older than the previous one, said.

Toothless quietly growled. Just as he had suspected; Ymir _did_ take his place as Beta. Toothless was always sure that that had been his ex-friend's goal, even in hatchling-hood. Other voices began to speak up, siding with that traitor, Ymir, when they were all suddenly cut off by a deep, scratchy, aged voice that Toothless knew so well.

"**SILENCE**!" His sire. "_I_ am Alpha, and _I_ will decide when we vacate this island!"

Toothless held his breath. That old voice still filled him with fear. So much fear that he was afraid to even breathe.

"But we're wasting time, Alpha Haakon (**3**). You have the answer you were looking for. Canute is a traitor and, as you have suspected, is not fit to lead this flight." A voice that sounded old, yet not quite as old as his sire, stated.

Toothless flinched again. Of course he did not want to lead the flight, but to hear that they thought of him as unfit and a traitor, was another thing entirely.

"Patience, Einar (**4**). I want to teach that … _boy_ of mine a lesson."

"Please do not hurt him, Haakon," A female voice spoke. Toothless' eyes widened for a second, then softened, "we have not seen him in so long." Toothless smiled. Mother. She always tried to quall the tension between him and his sire.

"Silence, Salme (**5**)! I cannot allow that pitiful excuse for a dragon to have the honor of living. He has betrayed us by fraternizing with the enemy. The scent of the human that jumped off the cliff was all over him. He must be punished." The threatening tone in the Alpha Night Fury was enough to quiet the other dragons.

"But Haakon—" The large male dragon roared loudly, scaring his mate into silence.

"I will not concern myself with why our offspring has committed such a heinous crime! I will not stand for—" He sniffed the air and growled. No mistaking it. That human hatchling's scent hung in the air. He also recognized the scent of the biggest disappointment of his life. Haakon spread his extremely long wings and let out an ear-splitting roar. "Come out, Canute, Show yourself!"

Toothless sighed. He knew that he would not be able to stay hidden for long. But he had hoped that it would give him time to gain enough confidence to face his sire. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Toothless made himself known.

He stepped into the ring of Night Furies and instantly regretted it. He could hear the growls from his sire and the other upper-ranking males. But Toothless stood his ground. He refused to let these old … _dragons_ … see his fear. Toothless stopped ten feet from Haakon. Just being under the stare of that cold, single-eyed glare made him feel like a fearful hatchling again.

"Canute, you are alive!"

Toothless looked to his left and smiled. He and his mother nuzzled each other.

"Mother …" Both dragons purred, seeming to forget about the others around them.

His mother's gaze held a look of love for her young. She had missed her baby. Unshed tears made her topaz gaze sparkle. "I missed you so much."

Toothless opened his mouth to answer but was stopped by another loud roar. The largest Night Fury made his way in between Toothless and his mother by rudely shoving her out of the way. The young dragon had to hold himself back from growling at his sire.

"Canute … How **dare** you show your face to this flight."

Toothless gulped. His heart was rapidly pounding in his ribcage. Just as Haakon took a step closer to his estranged son, Salme stood in front of him.

"Haakon—"

"Silence, Salme!" The female Night Fury said no more.

Haakon returned his gaze to his son. "You were always a disappointment to me. If it were not for your mother's infertility, I would have slain you years ago!"

The small dragon flinched for the third time in less than an hour. He bowed his head in respect.

"I-I realize that, Father." Ugh, that word felt so foreign to Toothless. He had always referred to Haakon as his sire. The old dragon did not deserve to be called a "father." A father was supposed to guide and protect his offspring. Even dragons knew that. The only things that Toothless had received from Haakon were abuse and neglect. The angry stare from that one cruel green eye brought back so many horrible memories. But Toothless forced himself to swallow his fear. He was taking a real chance with voicing his next sentence. "However, are you not the ones looking for me?" Toothless could hear his sire growl threateningly at him.

"How **DARE** you speak to me in such a manner! I should finish you off just for your insolence!" Haakon advanced on his young offspring while Toothless backed away, just as he did on their precious encounter.

Toothless bowed his head again. "Forgive me, Father. I did not come here to oppose you."

Haakon came close and sniffed his son. The odd scent of that tiny human lead him to the missing fin on the young dragon's tail. "What is this? Does it have anything to do with that small human from the other day?!"

Toothless gulped again. He knew that above all else, even above his sire's own hatred for him, that the old dragon absolutely _**HATED**_ humans. To Haakon, humans were nothing but filth that needed to be eliminated from the world.

"Father please, let me explain—"

But before he could say anything else, Haakon swung his large, thick tail and hit Toothless so hard that the young dragon came in contact with a sharp rocky wall and caused some parts of the rock to fall on top of him. Toothless was a little dazed, since his head had still been recovering from the previous injury.

"Canute!" Salme ran to her son and shielded him from any further physical attacks from her mate. However she could not protect him from Haakon's shameful words.

"You are nothing but a menace to all dragons! How dare you associate yourself with one of those _insects_?! Have I taught you **NOTHING**?!" Shakily, and with his mother's help, Toothless rose to his legs. He was thankful that they were not broken … yet.

"Father, please—"

"Did it do _that _to your tail?!"

Toothless' peridot eyes widened as he looked at his injured tail tip. "He didn't mean to. He ju—"

"_**WHY DID YOU NOT KILL IT?!**_" With each degrading question Haakon's voice rose in volume.

The whole thing was a disaster. Toothless felt so small. He felt like he was a hatchling again, getting yelled to because he did not hunt his prey the correct way—_Haakon's_ way.

"How dare you let a human live after it has insulted you!?" Toothless opened his mouth to speak, but was beaten to it by a voice that could only be described as … wormy.

"I think there's something far worse than what we originally thought, Alpha Haakon." All of the dragons of the flight looked at the dragon that had spoken.

"And what would that be, Beta Ymir?" Haakon condescendingly asked.

Toothless felt his lip rise in a snarl. He could tell that his former friend was still trying to sabotage him. Seems like taking his place as Beta was not good enough humiliation for Ymir. He had to continue to humiliate him by pointing out some sort of flaw. The other young dragon pranced over towards Toothless' side. The dark smirk on the Beta's face made Toothless snarl suspiciously.

"Look closely: that thing on his back is the same thing that humans use to ride their horses. Which can only mean one thing! He's been _**tamed**_!"

Gasps were heard from each dragon in the flight. They all muttered quietly, but Toothless was still able to pick up some of it.

"How could this happen to the Alpha's son?"

"This is horrible!"

"The humans are keeping Canute prisoner!"

Toothless looked from one dragon to another with wide, fear-filled eyes. This was not going the way he had planned. If he did not come up with something quickly, he would surly be killed. Toothless could hear his sire's growling increase in volume and fierceness.

"You are a disgrace! I would expect this from a Spiner (**6**), or a Rock-Skin (**7**) or even a Flame Walker (**8**) But _never_ a Dark (**9**)!

Oh wow. Toothless had not heard those terms in a long time—especially _Dark_. He and the other dragons on Berk had adopted the terms that the humans used to identify them. He liked "Night Fury" much better than "Dark." It was much more creative.

Toothless shook his head. Now was not the time to think about that.

"No, please just listen to me!"

Haakon bit down on Toothless' already injured neck. The young dragon roared in pain even louder than last time. He knew that this would happen. Yet he decided to come. _This_ was why the flight came looking for him: so that Haakon could finish the job he had started one hundred fifty years ago. Toothless did not fight back. He closed his eyes and waited for the pain that would end his life, just like when he first met Hiccup.

"Haakon, wait."

Toothless opened his eyes at the sound of his mother's voice.

"What is it now, Salme?"

"I am sure that our son has an explanation for his actions."

"Associating with humans is the most traitorous act! I will not stand for it!" Toothless took this opportunity to remove himself from his sire's murderous grasp.

"I did it for a reason." He was finally able to choke out the words. A snort from Ymir was the only response he received.

"There is no excuse good enough for such betrayal." The dragon looked proud of himself.

Toothless glared. '_Kiss ass …._' He thought to himself. "I had to make the human trust me before I could execute him." Toothless burst out the statement before Ymir could add anything else. Out of the corner of his eye, Toothless could see Haakon's pupils dilate in interest.

"So you were planning to kill it?" He asked, disbelievingly.

Toothless nodded. "Yes. The best way to punish him—it, is to attack when the guard is down. Are you not the one that taught me that, Father?"

Haakon tilted his head. "I did …"

"Than fear not. I promise that the human will be dead soon. I just need to keep going along with my plan." Toothless turned to leave.

"Halt, Canute." Toothless looked over his shoulder to see Haakon walk up to him. The young dragon quickly whipped around, thinking that he was going to be attacked yet again. There was really no telling when it came to Haakon. "I want to see you kill this human."

Toothless' pupils dilated quickly. "What?"

"You heard me. I want to make sure that your skills are still sharp. I want to see you avenge your fallen pride. Only then will you be allowed back into the flight." He stood nose to nose with his son. "That is what you want, is it not?"

No answer was given for a full minute. Tension from the other dragons began to rise.

"Yes."

Haakon's shoulders slacked. "Good. Than we shall leave now."

"No!"

"Why not?"

Ymir walked up to Haakon and stood next to him. "Yeah Canute, why not?"

Toothless bit his tongue to keep from lashing at Ymir. "Because. You have caused much disturbance within the human village. It is best to attack when all has quieted down." Haakon grinned.

"Ah, the element of surprise. So you did listen."

Ymir quietly growled at the slight pride in Haakon's eye.

"Exactly. But I have a different plan in mind. Instead of attacking from the inside, I think it is time to break the human." A sinister grin found itself on Toothless' lips.

Haakon wanted to hear more about this, but he looked up to the horizon and noticed the sun beginning to rise. Because of their nocturnal nature, Darks (Night Furies) had a natural Vitamin D deficiency. Sunlight was painful.

"We will put this plan of yours into action come nightfall. Right now, we must retreat." The old dragon yelled at the rest of the flight as they followed him to a well-shaded area.

Ymir and Toothless sneered at each other.

"_What?!_" Toothless demanded.

"No matter what you do, you will never be Beta ever again. _I_ am the Beta now." Ymir snapped. He stood in a warning position.

Toothless snorted. "It is my rightful rank."

"You gave it up when you disappeared!"

Toothless rolled his eyes. "You have always been jealous of me, Ymir. Does it hurt having your head constantly swatted by my father's tail?" Toothless said with a smirk. Ymir roared, which caused Toothless to roar back. The Beta eyed his ex-friend with hatred.

"I don't believe you can kill that human." Toothless' ears perked up. "I think your tie with it is thicker than you let on. We'll see what happens." With that, Ymir slowly followed the rest of the flight to the cave.

Toothless narrowed his eyes. He could not believe that there was a time where he trusted Ymir with his life. He would have to keep an eye on the Beta Night Fury.

* * *

**End of Chapter**

Here are the pronunciations for the dragons' names and the dragons' terms for their breeds.

1. Kah-noot

2. Yah-meer

3. Hah-ken

4. Eye-Nayer

5. Sal-may

6. No, that is not spelled wrong. It's the word dragons use instead of Deadly Nadder

7. Gronkle

8. Monstrous Nightmare

9. Night Fury


	6. Betrayal

_Okay, so this chapter has been prescreened. I've never had a "beta" before, since I really did not think that I needed one, but now I see that a fresh mind is alway a good thing to have. So, I would like to thank, and dedicate this chapter to Hi Mr Whale, for all of the help that was given to me. I had such a __hard time putting this particular chapter into words, and without the help I probably would have taken a very long time to update this story. I know where I want it to go, I just have a hard time getting it there. Thanks to this special person, I am very proud of this chapter._

* * *

**Chapter 6: Betrayal**

* * *

Toothless lay on a rock outside the beach side cave that his "family" was inhabiting at the moment. He had to think things over before sunset. Being on his own for so long, Toothless had actually overcome his Vitamin D deficiency. So the sunlight did not hurt him anymore. He sighed as he laid his head down on the rock. His thoughts were all over the place at the moment. He could not help the sudden flashback that came to him, of the night he had left the flight. It was as clear that night as it had been back so long ago …

* * *

_Canute slowly limped back into the furthest crevice of the cave, the den that he, his mother and his sire slept in. It had been a long night of "Alpha Lessons", as his sire had called them. When these "lessons" had first begun they had not been painful. But as time went on Canute began to suspect that Haakon was using the "lessons" to slowly break his son's spirit. It was working. Today's "lesson" was combat training … all against Haakon himself. _

_ The oldest dragon knew that Canute was not yet capable of standing up to a powerful being such as himself; but he still insisted that his young son fight against him. One would think that Haakon would at least go easy on his own offspring. **Wrong**. If anything he beat Canute within an inch of his life, claiming that it was to "show what was expected of him," telling him that it was "for his own good." Canute was just barely able to keep his life; and with each "lesson," it became harder and harder to stay alive. There were times when Canute just wanted to skip out on the "lessons" all together. However if he did, he would receive a beating just as deadly. It was too bad for Canute that Darks heal remarkably fast, because Haakon always expected a better fight for the next "lesson."_

_ That was the last straw. Haakon could beat him, abuse him, belittle him, claim that he was trying to shape his offspring into a competent leader, all he wanted in the privacy of the Alphas' private den; but to do so in front of the rest of the flight was another thing entirely!_

_ He had to leave._

_ Canute tried to rise to his shaky legs, but the pain was just too agonizing. He sighed after the third failed attempt. He began to lick the blood off of his right paw. The bite wounds on it were very deep but already starting to heal. He knew that his sire had tried to break it. Canute felt like crap; it was only logical to think that he looked it as well. He had to hurry and get cleaned up before … _

_ The young Dark's ears twitched at the sound of other dragons entering the cave. He cringed. The females had just returned from their hunting trip. Canute wanted to move so that his mother could not see his wounds, but once again he was too late. A horrified gasp reached his ears._

_ "Canute! What happened?!" Salme quickly ran over to her precious son and instantly began licking the blood off of his head. The nearly adolescent dragon tried to move away from his mother's efforts but she held him down with a paw around his neck._

_ Canute sighed and finally just gave in. He really wished his mother would stop treating him as if he was still a helpless little hatchling. _

_ "I'm fine, Mother." Even his voice sounded like crap._

_ Salme halted her actions to growl at her son. "Do not lie to me! You are covered in blood! Tell me what attacked you. Did you get into a fight with another dragon?"_

_ Canute looked at his mother with large eyes. Interesting how she had worded that conclusion. Suddenly he found his gaze moving to a corner of the den. "Uh … sorta …" He did not have the heart to tell her that Haakon was the culprit. He knew that Salme preferred to live under the illusion of the "happy family." _

_ Salme sighed. She had been trying to ignore the signs, but looking at the state that her son was in, she could no longer hide from the truth. "It was your father, wasn't it?" The young dragon looked at his mother with shock. Salme's own eyes held so much sorrow in them. Her pupils expanded in grief. She nuzzled her son, purring. "Oh, my Baby … I'm so sorry …"_

_ "For what, Mother? You didn't do this to me."_

_ "No, but I did not stop it, either."_

_ Canute hung his head. Now that his mother was accepting the severity of the situation, he felt that he could finally confide in her. "He's not even trying to hide it anymore, Mother. I've put up with it for fifty years, but I don't think I can anymore—and I know he won't stop until I'm dead! If I don't leave, I know he'll eventually kill me!" Canute's voice held all the anger and terror that he felt. Salme also caught the slight quivering of her son's figure as he spoke._

_ There had been many times in Canute's fifty years of life that he talked to his mother about leaving the flight. Each time she was able to talk him out of it. A flight of dragons is exactly like a family. If you leave the flight, you leave the family. Reminding him of that usually eased her offspring. However this time there was real determination and fear in his eyes. It was the first time the Alpha Female could practically feel the need to escape radiating off of her son._

_ There was a heavy silence for a few minutes before Canute continued. "You can't stop me this time, Mother." A low growl held itself in the young dragon's voice. He was completely prepared to stare his mother down if need be. What he was not prepared for was the defeated sigh that escaped her throat._

_ "I know. I will not even try to."_

_ Canute's pupils expanded. This was the first time that his mother did not put up a fight to get him to abandon his escape plans._

_ Salme sighed and sat down, curling her much larger tail around the smaller one of her son. "Canute, I know that you have experienced pain from your father before. I have tried to turn a blind eye to it, but I just cannot do it anymore."_

_ "Mother …"_

_ "When you hurt, Baby, it hurts me too. I'm so sorry I made you hurt this much." Canute did not know what to say. His mother then continued. "I will not stop you from leaving." Canute let out a sigh that he did not know he was holding, "However," He slightly tensed at that word, "I will ask that you at least wait until sunrise." _

_ Canute cringed. "But Mother, the sunlight hurts …"_

_ "I realize that; but you must make a choice of what would hurt more: a little sunlight … or death."_

_ The young male dragon's breath caught in his throat. Mother was right (as she usually was). His sire was trying to slowly break, and then kill, him. And it was getting more and more unbearable. The decision was already made. _

_Canute's peridot eyes found the topaz of his mother's. "Okay."_

* * *

_ At the first light of the sun, Salme and Canute stood at the entrance of the cave. They had waited a while to make sure that the other dragons were in a deep sleep before they acted._

_ Canute took a deep breath and looked at his mother with longing eyes. "Are you going to be okay?"_

_ Salme smiled and nuzzled her son. "Do not worry. Your father will not hurt me. He loves me."_

_ Canute's eyes lowered to the ground in sadness. "I wish I could say the same. Then I would not have to do this …" _

_ "I know, my Baby, I know."_

_ He looked towards the lightening sky. It was filled with colors that he had not seen before. It was beautiful, but made his eyes hurt. A gentle breeze blew past the both of them. He was a little fearful of what lay ahead of him, but he knew that this was something he had to do. _

_ "Canute," said dragon turned to face his mother again, "this is your last opportunity to back out. If you leave, you can never come back." _

_He could tell that Salme desperately wanted him to stay. But she also wanted him to live. She loved her son more than anything. Canute could practically see his mother's heart breaking in front of him. It was the last thing he ever wanted to do to her, but it had to be done._

_ Canute stepped up to his mother and nuzzled her with all of his love. Both dragons purred in content while trying to enjoy the moment. It would most likely be the last time they ever saw each other. _

_ A grumbling sound came from inside the cave, catching the attention of both mother and son. "You should get going. Please be safe." Salme said, giving her son one last lick._

_ "You too."_

_ Canute took a step outside the cave. A wave of excitement over came him as he spread his wings to take flight. He had just taken his first step towards his new life. Just as he prepared himself to jump into the air, he heard his mother's voice one more time._

_ "Canute, wait …" The young dragon looked back at her. Her eyes were sad, yet he also saw … pride in her eyes. She was proud of her son for taking such a large risk. "Fly with the wind, not against it. That way your scent will not linger."_

_ Canute nodded and took off. He flew as fast as the pain from the sunlight would let him. Not once did he look back. The young dragon knew that if he did, than he would give in and return to the torture and horror._

* * *

Toothless remembered that journey quite vividly. To stay ahead of the flight, he traveled during the day and slept at night. Sometimes the pain from the sunlight was too much, so he forced himself to learn how to swim like the fish (more specifically the dolphins) that he preyed on. He was actually quite good at it. He would watch how they swam and came up for air when needed. So he was able to travel further north as a result.

The young dragon spent the next twenty-five years of his life in solitude before accidentally stumbling upon the northern dragon's nest that was ruled by the Red Death. He never really felt that he belonged there any more than he did back home. He kept to himself and only did what he had to do in order to keep his place there. Even though he never stole from the humans, as long as he did something during the raids, the Red Death did not seem to mind his presence. So he spent another twenty-five years in that nest.

"Canute …" Toothless' sensitive ears twitched in the direction of the voice that had called his name.

The sleek figure of his mother slowly made its way up to him.

"Mother … you should be asleep."

The Alpha Female dragon chuckled and licked her son on the cheek. "So should you."

"I'm fine. The sunlight doesn't hurt me anymore."

"As I see. You have grown magnificently." Salme took a good look at her son. When he had left, he was just reaching his adolescent years, which lasted over three hundred fifty years for dragons. Now, even though he was still in the adolescent stage, he seemed more confident. Quicker. Stronger. Smarter. His eyes held wisdom beyond his years due to his travels. She was very proud of him.

Toothless smiled. That smile quickly disappeared when a thought came to him. "Mother, why exactly has the flight come looking for me after a hundred fifty years?"

Salme took a seat on the rock, right next to Toothless. "Because we heard about what you have done."

Toothless blinked and tilted his head in that way that the little girls of the village thought was so cute, his ears perked up. "What?"

"We heard of your victory over that gargantuan dragon."

His pupils narrowed. "Oh, the Red Death …" He turned his gaze away from his mother, heart pounding in his chest. "How did you hear about that?"

"Word travels."

"Oh, right …"

"When it was mentioned that a Dark had killed such as dragon, we knew that it had to be you." Salme extended a wing over her son and embraced him. "I am just glad that you are alive."

Toothless shook his head in confusion. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

Salme frowned and tucked her wing back in. "Right after you left, your father was completely outraged. He and the upper ranking males looked for you every night for a long time. When word arrived of a Dark that defeated a large dragon up in the north, we knew it had to be you, so your father took that opportunity to track you down."

"Why didn't you stop him?" Toothless almost raised his voice when he remembered that this was no ordinary dragon he was talking to; this was his mother.

"I wanted to make sure you were well …"

The young male sighed. He took a chance asking his next question. "So … did you happen to hear anything else?" The look in Toothless' eyes made it very obvious that he was fishing for a certain detail in the story.

"No." He instantly relaxed. "But if it is that human that you are taking about, we did not know about him until we came here." Toothless' heartbeat sped up. He looked at his mother with panic in his eyes, pupils narrowed into slits. "Canute, why did that human touch you?"

Toothless gazed into his mother's eyes, trying to find some kind of understanding. Salme did not hold the same sheer hatred for humans that his sire did. In fact, as far as Toothless knew, his mother did not care very much about humans at all. So he decided to give it a shot.

"He's my pet."

Salme gasped. Her eyes widened as she back away a bit from her son as if he was infected with something.

Both dragons now stood on the sandy beach very tensely. "Mother, wait! You don't understand! Something happened …"

"Oh Canute … you know that your father hates humans over everything!" Salme flapped her wings to show how disappointed she was with this information.

Toothless groaned and paced around in a circle. "I know, **I KNOW!** But I swear, I've been slowly getting his trust before I punish him."

Salme's eyes narrowed in disbelief. "Is that so? Then why have you not done it sooner?"

"I told you, I have a plan!"

"I do not believe you, Canute."

Toothless stopped pacing and looked into his mother's eyes with a stern look. As a hatchling, he would never even _think_ of trying to do such a thing. But he was not the same dragon that she had known. Her son really was grown up now. Toothless brought his single-finned tail to her sight.

"He took my ability to fly, Mother." Salme sighed but said nothing as Toothless continued to give her that infuriated look. "He deserves nothing less."

* * *

Hiccup sighed as he stared at the Book of Dragons in his lap. It was open to the Night Fury page. Just looking at his own eerily realistic drawings of Toothless set his already worried mind into overdrive.

He was worried when he woken up and Toothless was nowhere in sight. Sure they had had an argument, but he did not think that it was bad enough to the point where Toothless had to run away. In his panic, Hiccup rushed to the academy and immediately sent his friends all over the island to look for him.

The teenage Viking just prayed to every god that his best friend was found very soon. The dragon was injured, depressed and probably hungry. So it was important that they find they him soon.

Hiccup was so engrossed in his thoughts that he almost did not notice when Stormfly had landed next to him with Astrid on top. The blonde girl hopped down from her own dragon and stood over Hiccup's shoulder. "No sign of him … " She said sadly.

The auburn-haired teenager sighed and stood up. His legs tingled from sitting down for so long. He turned away from Astrid, refusing to look at her pitied face. "Where did he go, Astrid? Why did he run away? Why would he do this at a time like this?" Hiccup's worry seemed to escalate with each question. He wrapped his arms around himself when he felt a sudden chill creep through him.

"I don't know, Hiccup. I can't answer those questions. Only he can." Astrid took a step closer to her small friend, but he still did not look at her.

"I didn't think he was hurting this much. I just thought that maybe he needed some time to himself and then he would be better …"

"Hiccup …"

"I mean, he knows that the flight is still somewhere on this island. Why would he leave himself so vulnerable to another attack?"

Astrid could tell that Hiccup's naturally guilty conscious was trying to find a way to blame himself for Toothless' disappearance. She had to make him see that this was not his fault. She placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure he knows what he's doing. He's very intelligent compared to the other dragons."

Hiccup sighed again. "I know … but he can't fly without me, and he can't fight with a broken wing and no fire … I just wish I knew that he was okay …" His voice began to crack at the end of that statement.

"Oh Hiccup …" Astrid wrapped her arms around his shoulders, embracing him from behind. Hiccup gently placed a hand over Astrid's hands that grasped each other on the base of his neck and leaned into her touch for comfort. They stayed like that for a few peacefully quiet moments.

"Guys, guys!" Fishlegs suddenly ran into the arena, stopping abruptly at the show of affection in front of him. Astrid and Hiccup quickly pulled away, feeling very awkward now. "Uh … am I interrupting something?" A blush formed on his round cheeks.

"Yeah Fishlegs, you are … what do you want?" Hiccup shifted from side to side, trying to play off the new tension he felt with Astrid.

"Well, I found these in the plaza earlier." Fishlegs held up a few flat, black objects in his hand.

"What are those?" Astrid asked as she and Hiccup walked up to the husky boy to get a good look.

"They're Night Fury scales." Hiccup answered, taking the black scales from Fishlegs. He held them in his hands, examining them thoroughly. While most of them were completely inky black, one was more of a dark charcoal grey and much shinier than the others. "Toothless …"

"What was that, Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked.

Hiccup brought the charcoal grey scale to eye level. "This is one of Toothless' scales." He answered, never looking away from it.

Astrid took the scale out of Hiccup's hand and looked at it. "How can you tell?" She could not really see the differences in the scales. To her, they all looked the same.

"I just can."

* * *

The day passed with no word as to Toothless' whereabouts. The Viking teenagers all sat at their table in the Great Hall, eating their evening meal.

"So Toothless ran away. Man, how much of a hold does that Alpha have over him?" Snotlout asked out loud. Hiccup would have made some kind of attempt at a witty comment, but he was asking himself the same question.

"Don't worry, Hiccup. I'm sure that wherever Toothless is, he knows what he's doing." Fishlegs said, repeating the same thing that Astrid had said earlier.

"I know, I just—"

Suddenly, a series of roars and screams came from outside. Every Viking that had been in the Great Hall rushed outside to see what was going on. Even before the teenagers made it outside they heard the signature wailing of a Night Fury attack.

"Oh Thor, NO!" Hiccup exclaimed.

Outside, there were large black dragons flying around the village, wreaking havoc and attacking all the Vikings. One particularly loud roar came from right above the teenagers. The Alpha Night Fury stood atop the Great Hall. It shot not only blasts of white-hot plasma, but actual _beams_ of it. It actually created a smoking crater in the middle of the village center. It constantly roared to the other dragons. Hiccup could tell that it was giving them commands on where to attack.

"Let's go, guys!" Astrid yelled. The teenagers—minus Hiccup—all mounted their dragons and entered the fight. The Night Furies were so large that it took multiple Vikings to fight just one of them.

Somehow, Hiccup was able to run from the Great Hall without getting attacked. Houses were on fire, people were wounded, and chaos was everywhere. Suddenly a large dragon, that looked very similar to Toothless, stood in the boy's way. While a lot of the other dragons all looked much older, this one looked to be around Toothless' age group … but this was not Toothless. For one thing, its wings were in good shape. Second, it was a little bit bigger than Hiccup's loyal friend. And third, the yellow eyes that stared at him were filled with nothing but pure hatred.

Hiccup looked around to see if anyone was going to come to his rescue, but they were all busy at the moment. So the auburn-haired teenage Viking decided to do the one thing that he was always good at: run away from the dragon that was stalking towards him.

As soon as he turned around to flee, another Night Fury blocked his exit. Hiccup gasped with a relieved smile. The bandaged wing and peridot gaze quickly gave the dragon's identity away.

"Toothless!" He exclaimed happily. Hiccup was so lost in relief that he did not notice the snarl on the dragon's face. Only when Toothless' growl rose in volume at the boy's approach, did he realize that he was in danger. "Bud?"

Toothless snarled at Hiccup, circling around him. It was then that the boy noticed the other dragon, which also circled him from the opposite direction. He was trapped. Hiccup's heart beat rapidly in terror. "T-Toothless, what's wrong with you?" The dragons kept circling him as if they were ambushing their prey. Hiccup gasped in horror. These two Night Furies were working together. "No … Bud—"

The other Night Fury roared loudly at him. He could tell that it was about to strike. Instinctively, Hiccup threw his arms up to protect himself.

Toothless roared at the other dragon, who roared back in response. They seemed to be having an argument. Chancing it, Hiccup lowered his arms to look at his best friend when Toothless unexpectedly swung the length of his tail into the boy, causing him to impact the ground very harshly. "Toothless!" Hiccup cried with shock and hurt.

How could Toothless, Hiccup's supposedly best friend, do something like that? Hiccup tried to get up and touch his dragon's head, but Toothless roared and pounced onto him.

"AHH!" Hiccup screamed.

The Night Fury took ahold of the boy's left shoulder in his jaws and eyed Hiccup. As they stared into each other's eyes, Hiccup could only see one thing in them … hate. "No, please … Bud …"

That last word did it. Toothless sank his sharp teeth into Hiccup's shoulder, tasting his rider's blood for the first time. Hiccup screamed bloody murder. He was certain that the dragon he once called his best friend was going to rip his arm completely off. He continued to scream and did not hear the loud roar that caused Toothless to finally let go of his shoulder. The boy kept screaming from the pain and the shock that was flowing through his body. Hiccup barely registered Astrid's voice yelling at Toothless, asking him how he could actually attack Hiccup. The auburn-haired teenager was hyperventilating so much that he wore himself out. The last thing he heard before everything went black was his friends, father and Gobber shouting powerful curses at the dragons … specifically his now ex-best friend.

* * *

"Alpha, why did you pull us away? We could have killed the boy and been done with this by now!" Ymir complained.

The flight had made its way back to the beach at the command of Haakon.

"There were too many humans. They outnumbered us greatly." The Alpha said.

Ymir growled. Perhaps the others were okay with being on this island, but Ymir did not want to be there anymore than necessary. "Why do we have to do this, anyway? It's Canute's problem!"

Toothless snarled. "If I recall you were ready to tear into the boy's flesh just as much as I was!"

"Of course I was! We can't trust you to kill the human after it has _tamed_ you!"

"I told you that's not true!" Toothless wanted nothing more than to jump onto Ymir and rip his guts out. And if his wing had not been broken he would have done just that. But he had to be smart. Ymir had the power of flight … Toothless did not.

"That is enough out of both of you!" Haakon's booming, aged voice yelled.

"Haakon, we have our son back. Let us stop this madness and leave this place!" Salme pleaded to her mate.

"No. We must help Canute restore his honor." The large dragon turned to his son. "You have weakened the human. I expect you to finish the job tomorrow night. Am I understood?"

Toothless nodded. "Yes, sir …" As the other dragons moved to the shade of the beach side cave, Toothless voiced, "Then what?" All ten Night Furies stopped and stared at Toothless. "After I kill the boy, what will become of me? If you have not noticed, I cannot fly."

Haakon stepped closer to Toothless. The other dragons dared not to enter the cave yet. The Alpha Male was always the first to enter.

"Your wing will heal." Haakon answered, surprisingly calm.

"I do not mean my wing, Father." Toothless brought his tail tip forward.

"You have other means of movement. Do not for one minute think that I do not know how you have avoided my pursuit for so long." Haakon spoke in a dangerously low tone, making Toothless gulp.

"It's been a long time since I have had a reason to swim for so long." He tried to make the excuse sound sincere.

"But you have done it once. And I have faith that you will train yourself to swim great distances again." The older dragon then entered the cave, followed by the others for a good day's sleep.

Perhaps Toothless was looking too much into this, but the sudden change in Haakon's demeanor had an unnerving effect on him. The dragon had gone from wanting his _son_ dead to wanting _Hiccup_ dead. It may have just been Haakon's nearly obsessive need to kill all humans, or it could have been that he actually was proud of Toothless' achievement over the Red Death. Either one was much too scary to think about. In all Toothless' two hundred fifty years of life, this would have been the only time Haakon was proud of him. The only time he acted like a real father.

* * *

Hiccup woke up with an excruciating pain in his left shoulder. When he reached up to grab it, he found that it was so tightly wrapped that he could hardly move it at all … which was probably its purpose.

"What happened?" Suddenly, memories flooded his mind as well as the grief that they brought with them. Tears flooded his vision. The pain in his shoulder was nothing compared to the pain in his chest. "Toothless … no …"

Hiccup quietly walked downstairs to where his father and Gobber were.

"Hiccup! You should be rest'n." Stoic said.

The boy stubbornly shook his head. "No … I have to find Toothless …" He realized that his voice sounded a little hopeless, but that was the least of his worries at this point.

"Absolutely not! Tha' devil has reverted back t' his old ways!" Stoic put both of his heavy hands on his son's shoulders, removing one when Hiccup winced.

"But there has to be an explanation for this …"

"Yeah, Toothless has teamed up with th' flight o' Night Furies." Gobber suggested.

"T-that can't be true … T-Toothless wouldn't do that … would he?" Hiccup sounded as if he was trying to convince himself more than the two grown men in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Son. But those Night Furies did too much damage t' tha village. And witnesses saw Toothless do most o' it right before he attacked you. I know he's your friend, but after what's happened, the Night Furies have t' go."

Hiccup gasped "Dad, no! **PLEASE**! You don't understand! I can't—"

"Enough, Hiccup! I've already made my decision."

Before Hiccup could say anything else, the two Viking men were out the door. So many emotions were running through Hiccup's mind at that moment. Finally he could not hold it back any longer. He finally broke down and cried for all he was worth.

* * *

**End of Chapter**


End file.
